The present invention is directed to a device for shaping the behavior of an animal and, more particularly, to a device for shaping the behavior of an animal using a behavior marking and reward delivery system.
For much of human history, humans have trained animals, such as dogs and other domesticated and non-domesticated animals, to accomplish certain tasks for a variety of reasons. In some instances, such training was used for purposes of training the animal for hunting or competition. In other instances, such training was used to capitalize on the specific biological advantages of the animal in such a way as to benefit humans, such as the use of a dog's superior sense of smell to accomplish tasks such as search and rescue, tracking, searching for illegal drugs, and searching for explosive devices. A number of different methods have been used to train such animals.
There are two common classes of training methods. The first class of training methods uses positive reinforcement, such as providing the animal with a positive stimulus like a reward, to reinforce the desired behaviors completed by the animal. The second class of training methods utilizes negative reinforcement, such as providing the animal with a negative stimulus, generally in the form of some type of punishment, to deter the animal from exhibiting behaviors other than the desired behavior. In general, most animal training methods incorporate both positive and negative reinforcement, but under current training methods a significant amount of negative reinforcement is usually required, particularly when the animal is first beginning to learn the desired behaviors.
Conventionally, when positive reinforcement is utilized, an animal trainer will reinforce the desired behavior by providing the animal with a motivational, or reward, item when the animal accomplishes a particular desired task. In the past, animal trainers have generally been restricted in their choice of training methods by their ability to see the behavior being trained and ability to mark and/or reward the desired behavior through the use of a hand-held “clicker,” verbal voice cue, or other similar noise-making device and/or motivational items. Typically, the animal's reward for completing the proper behavior has been in the form of a motivational item or training object that is hand-delivered to, thrown to, or pre-placed for the animal. Motivational items and training objects include any item which, through instinctual or other reasons, the animal desires to receive. Examples of common motivational items and training objects include food, toys, dummies, tugs, balls, prey items, and other similar objects. The delivery of such motivational items has been limited by the animal trainer's ability to directly observe the specific behaviors of the animal and by the trainer's ability to mark and deliver the animal's reward in a timely fashion, which may be difficult when the animal is being trained in enclosed areas where it is difficult for the trainer to see or when there is a large distance between the animal and the trainer. That is, the trainer's choice in training methods has been limited when the training occurs over a large distance, in a container or other structure, or behind cover.
Attempts have been made to overcome some of these limitations on the trainer's training methods through the use of mechanical devices to, for example, deliver the reward to the animal such as by dropping the reward via gravity in place of the trainer. Such devices that are conventionally available have been restricted to a particular reward type, such as a specially designed ball specific to the particular device or a round ball in general. These prior art devices could not deliver food rewards, nor could they use any tug items, such as a jute roll with strap, a kong on a rope, or a rubber ball with rope. The use and acceptance of these conventional prior art mechanical training devices have been hampered by these limitations, particularly given such devices cannot be used with the most popular motivational items utilized in animal training, and specifically those used in both agility and protection dog training. Examples of such prior art mechanical training devices are provided by U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,571,743 and 4,307,529.
Conventional prior art mechanical training devices have also been incapable of delivering a reward with sufficient speed and distance to take advantage of or initiate an animal's “prey drive.” That is, such devices have been unable to propel the motivational item with enough speed and distance to engage the animal's instinctual imperative to chase down and capture prey. Rather, these prior art mechanical training devices typically would be hung above or placed on the ground and the motivational item (a ball) would roll out of the device via gravity and merely fall to the ground.
In some cases, most particularly if the device was to be used for propelling dummies to retriever animals, such as retriever dogs, the delivery of the dummies has been powered by an additional propellant, such as a “blank” filled with gunpowder. However, the use of such devices has often been undesirable in many circumstances, due to the creation of loud undesired noise which could interfere with the behavior marking noise and/or disturb the trainer's neighbors. Additionally, such devices generally cannot be used indoors due to the noise created by the “blank” and the distance which the dummy is thrown by the device.
Finally, prior art devices have done little to present a solution to the problem of the trainer being required to directly observe the behavior of the animal before releasing the reward. Therefore, such devices have still been limited by placement of the device and location of the trainer, even when hand-held transmitters have been used, such that the trainer was still required to directly observe the behavior of the animal and to release the reward at exactly the right time to be effective. Therefore, such prior art devices have generally been no more effective than a commonly-used handheld clicker. Additionally, the use of a hand-held transmitter as the only method of triggering the release of the reward diminishes the effectiveness of the devices where the devices were used over large distances, in containers or other structures, or behind cover, as the strength of the signal and the range of the transmitter is greatly reduced in such cases.
Thus, there is an unmet need for an animal behavior shaping system designed for the positive reinforcement of the animal's behavior by the trainer that can deliver a wide variety of rewards, provide a consistent way to accurately mark and reward the behavior of the animal, provide a compact single system platform device that is capable of multiple methods of training, shorten animal training time and expand the potential of training with positive stimulus while reducing the need for negative stimulus during training, and readily accepts new technologies.